DeLuca (Mafia Romance)

Mia

I felt tears start to prick at my eyes and my nose started to tingle as I watched the flames billow out of warehouse. I heard Mouse calling for the men in the building over and over again, I felt like I was going to throw up. My thoughts were in a tail spin.

What if nobody made it out alive?

A crackled voice came over the radio, snapping me out of my wallowing. I couldn’t make out what it said since it was so garbled but the fact that it was coming in at all meant that at least one of our men was alive. Hopefully there were more with him. I shook my head, mentally scolding myself for almost breaking down, again.

I didn’t have time for that shit. With Carlo unable to call the shots the responsibility landed on my shoulders. I couldn’t let my thoughts drift to the ‘what ifs’, I needed to focus on what I could control, what I could change. Taking a deep breath I stood up taller and pulled myself together. I had men out there and I needed to get them home.

“Are you able to identify who was trying to make contact?” I asked, turning my focus on Mouse.

He sighed, “No, the audio is rough. I’m trying to buff it now to get at least something from it but they’re all on the same circuit so there’s no way to trace it back to any one person.”

“Hey, we have movement,” Frankie announced, bringing my attention back to the satellite feed once again. The two groups of men had come to stand together, or face off, I couldn’t tell with the quality of the picture.

“This isn’t good. Eddie is a total hot head and his friends are even worse,” Frankie said shakily, it was the only time I had heard her sound less than confident. I made a mental note to ask her how she knew Enzo’s cousin after this was over.

“Shit!” I hissed. You couldn’t mistake the body language of Eddie’s crew. The four men had drawn their weapons on Kashnikov’s men.

“No, no, no!” Frankie yelled at the monitor, “Don’t fucking do it, Eddie. You can get out of this, just fucking use your head!” As if he could hear her one of the men lowered his weapon and turned to speak to the other men who were still pointing their guns. Someone from Kashnikov’s crew stepped forward and it looked like he was talking to them. One by one they each slowly lowered their weapons, one of the men from Eddie’s group stepping forward.

“They’re shaking hands?” Sal asked.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“It looks like it, maybe they are still making the deal,” Mouse piped up.

Eddie and his men turned back to their cars but before they could make it the Kashnikov crew opened fire. All four of the men dropped to the ground and didn’t move again.

“NO!” Frankie let out a blood curdling scream. The look of devastation on her face was soul crushing. I knew what that felt like. It was the same feeling I had when we found Gina, as if you’re whole world just stopped.

She folded in half in her chair and alternated between dry heaving and hyperventilating. I snatched up the trash can from the corner and hurried over to her. Dropping to my knees I placed the can at her feet and softly stroked her hair down her back.

“Mouse, no matter what, DO NOT lose your visual on them, understood?” I called out orders from my position on the floor. “Sal, I need you to get on the radio and keep trying to contact someone, anyone.”

“On it,” Mouse replied, taking over the satellite feed.

“Of course,” Sal said, making his way over to the radio equipment.

“Hey,” I whispered, continuing to rub Frankie’s back, “I need you to try to take deep breaths for me okay? You have to try to calm yourself down.” She nodded her head but her breathing was even more erratic than it had been a moment ago. At least the dry heaving had stopped. “Come on, try to match my breaths, okay?”

I took deep exaggerated breaths in and out, having done this with Gina once when she was tripping hard from something she took at a party. Just thinking about Gina made my heart hurt. There was literally a pain in my chest every time a memory of her would creep into my thoughts. I hoped one day I would be able to remember her without feeling like this. Frankie struggled to match my breathing and after a few minutes she was able to take normal breaths again.

“I’m not going to ask if you’re okay because that’s a stupid question. I am going to ask what you need from me. Can you tell me what you need, Frankie?”

“Water?”

“Of course,” I said sweetly. Getting up, I walked over to the mini-fridge in the corner of the room. When I opened it I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. It was full of Redbull. There was one bottle of water in the door and every other inch of space was occupied by Frankie’s habit. As I made my way back over to her, I called out to Mouse and Sal.

“Any changes?” I asked.

“Kashnikov’s men went into the building,” Mouse whispered gravely and hesitated as if he wanted to say more but wasn’t sure if he should.

“What?” I questioned impatiently.

“They started to drag the other guys into the building with them,” Mouse chanced a glance at Frankie and I followed his gaze. She was sitting up in the chair but her head was down and her eyes were squeezed shut.

“How long has it been since the second explosion?” I asked, changing the subject. We all knew that if they were dragging Eddie’s men into the burning building then they were definitely gone. If not from the gunshot wounds then from the fire.

“Eight minutes,” Mouse replied.

“How is this place not crawling with cops yet? I know we pay well but we sure as hell don’t pay well enough to keep them off of something like this.” I said, resuming my position at Frankie’s feet and handing her the water. “How’s your breathing?”

“Better,” She said between drinks of water.

I took the bottle of water out of her hands and set it on the desk. Reaching out to grab either side of her face, I tilted her head up so she was looking at me. “Look, I know this situation is completely fucked, but you have a decision to make right now. You can walk out of here and go home, or go lay down in one of the guest rooms and grieve, sleep, whatever you want. Or, you can stay and help us get the rest of our men back and take this bastard down. It is completely up to you and no one is going to judge you or think any less of you no matter what choice you make, understood?”

She nodded, took a deep breath and cleared her throat, “Let’s make this fucker pay.” Her voice was a little shaky but the intention wasn’t, she was on board.

“Good, I need you to get onto the scanners and hack whatever system you need to find out why there hasn’t been any police activity yet. I want to know how you blow up a building without the police getting called.”